> Seems to me the most efficient way to organize and play all of these files
> according to my preferences would be to have one folder of playlists, but
> how to make them? Windows Playlists use a propietary format and Winamp has
> to load every song rather than just write the list?
>
> Anyone have a solution?

You should just be able to drag a folder into the winamp playlist window
and then save the result as a playlist - is that what you mean by
having to 'load every song'? I suppose that could take a little time if
you have tons of songs and a slow PC. =)

If you want something more DOS-y, a command has been posted here before
(by Neon John) that will make a playlist - I'll just quote it here
(below) for convenience - note that you can do this with individual
directories, e.g., by artist or genre, as well as for your entire
collection.

If you can't stand the command line, I can send you a VBScript that will
recursively generate a playlist for any folder dragged onto the script,
e.g., dragging "M:\Music\Metal" onto the script will create a playlist
named Metal.m3u in the directory where the script is located -
presumably the folder where you want to store playlists.

-------------------------------

Do it with a playlist.

Mount your Jukebox on your computer and get a command prompt (assuming
windoze)

Dismount your Jukebox, set the play mode to random and play the playlist.

On my Jukebox, I have a directory called \01-playlists. The "01" makes
it sort to the top. Inside this directory is a playlist for each band,
created as above but in the band's home directory. There is a playlist
for every genre such as bigband.m3u, rock.m3u, etc. I created these
lists by executing the above command into several files and editing out
the bands that didn't apply. Then there is an "all.m3u" that plays the
whole jukebox.

This works great. I rarely venture into the actual music directories.

You can use WinAmp to build playlists but when you want to play a whole
directory or tree, the "dir" method is quicker and easier.